I Just Showed Up

I left my house to the sound of bongos. My son, Asher, sat on the couch beating to the rhythm of his own making. Not a care in the world, it seemed. Just freedom to express himself, and joy spread across his face.
An hour later, I heard bongos again. But these were not from the [...]

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They Didn’t Even Know How to Hug

One of my friends started an organization called World Next Door (www.WorldNextDoor.org) as a way to awaken ordinary people to global issues such as poverty, social injustice and AIDS. He and his team travel across the globe and recently stayed in Haiti. While there, he posted this as his Facebook status:
Slept at the orphanage last [...]

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What Every Woman Wants To Hear

In preparation for our trip to Florida for Fall Break, I bought a new swimsuit. When I donned the suit in Florida, I thought I would wow my husband. I took my dress off, revealing the new black, sassy suit, and I waited. Nothing. On the second day, still nothing. The third time I put it [...]

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Your Inconsistency Used to Mess With My Head

I used to have a problem with people who were inconsistent. It doesn’t matter if were are a family member or a colleague. I often felt insecure when you’d appear happy one moment and anger the next. Here’s what used to happens in my head . (Okay, I admit, it still happens more often than [...]

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One

I’ve been thinking a lot about community lately. There are many notions about community. We may define our various communities by our neighborhoods, school communities, churches. Within the church, there are often small groups, which we often call our community groups. My friend Heidi is  a part of the rowing community, just as our family [...]

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The Great Art Escape

I had every intention of going away for the weekend. I hadn’t decided where. Anywhere but home. The week had overwhelmed me. I was sinking into depression, fatigue and irrational thoughts.
A lot of the stress came from a medical treatment my husband had on Wednesday. It’s a type of chemotherapy that’s still experimental for multiple [...]

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Amazing Grace

Okay, I know this title is not the most creative or original. However, it is entirely fitting. I cannot begin to explain the ways I have received amazing grace in the past few days.
After writing about my secrets on a previous post, I have been overwhelmed with messages from friends near and far. I published [...]

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The Problem with Secrets

In Frederick Buechner’s book, Telling Secrets, he recounts experiences in his life he has hidden out of fear and shame. The take-away message for me, as I read the book, was that when I lay bare my secrets, a certain freedom comes with releasing them to the rest of humanity. When I reveal these secrets, [...]

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From the Suburbs to the City

It’s been nearly a year since we moved from Suburbia to the City. When I tell people we live downtown, I get some raised eyebrows, lots of questions and a few encouraging comments. It seems so natural that we moved here. But it wasn’t always that way.
It all started when we sent our kids to [...]

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This is How I Know

Several years ago a co-worker told me, in the nicest way possible, that I was conceited. She loved to get into deep conversations about the world and various philosophies. She told me that she was open-minded, yet she could not accept that there was such a thing as a personal relationship with God. She would [...]

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